This is one of those instance where a puzzle title would've made the whole experience a little nicer. The note is depressingly anti-climactic. Why GAME? Why these four GAME phrases? There needs to be something, some phrase, some wordplay, *some*thing to make the whole thing come together. Otherwise, the whole concept is just an idle curiosity. So what? GAME here, GAME there, GAME follows this or that ... and? And nothing. Embedding of GAME is also a little wonky. It only traverses the two words in a two-word phrase once (MAKING AMENDS). Otherwise, it's just a letter string inside a word ... and the TORN part of TORN LIGAMENT is just superfluous, themewise. Not involved in the GAME at all. That's B-grade word hiding. The longer Downs give the puzzle some sparkle (I'm particularly fond of "THE SHINING" and DOWN UNDER), but the (abundant) shorter stuff is pretty GRAVE. Not jarringly bad—just creaky. ERMA/ONEL/ADUE-esque. Also, Tommy John surgery involves a *specific* ligament, not just any old TORN LIGAMENT. Crossword folks will appreciate that it's the ULNAR collateral ligament that's repaired in said surgery. I hope I never see ULNAR in a puzzle again, but if I do ... now you know the clue I want.

I tore through this one, with only Aretha's sister (whose name I am doomed never to remember) and the puppeteer BAIRD giving me any trouble. I never read "The Sneetches" but enjoyed seeing SNEETCH in the grid. While most of the cluing was pretty staid, I laughed at the absurdity of 53A: Like a doornail, only more so (DEADER). Don't have much else to say about this one.

88
comments:

I liked the puzzle, missed the note, so i didn't get the theme. DEADER is a bit ridiculous. Not really happy about seeing EURO-trash. I don't understand why slurs are finding their way into the puzzles. It's derogatory and unnecessary.

Off topic: For the past several days, many commentators have been asking Rex to remove this blog's moderation. I'll join them. The back-and-forth between different people in nearly real time made this blog interesting to me. The occasional off-color snark or profanity bothered me not at all.

Since comments have been moderated, I've found that I've contributed my opinion only about one-fourth of what I used to, and sometimes I'll go three or four days without even looking at this blog.

On the other hand, this is Rex's blog, and it's got his name (Michael Sharp) on it, and so he's got a right to run it whatever way he wishes. If he felt that unmoderated comments were BEFOULing his name and brand, then he's got to do what he needs to do to protect them. I just don't think the product is as interesting as it used to be.

When GILGAMESH and SNEETCH showed up I was pretty sure I had something seriously wrong up in the NW, but when all the downs worked out I had to check with Google to find out what I had been missing all these years.

A little disappointing, kept searching for a hidden word knowing it couldn't have been GAME as that was right up there, front and central. Oh well, I guess that's it. Ho Hum! Tying it Into the starred clues was also a little boring.

Easy-medium for me. Nice twist on the "word that can follow" theme, plus the theme answers had some zip. Liked it. Xwordinfo explains what the constructor was trying to do with the theme and it's actually pretty interesting. Gaffneyesque if you will.

Easiest puzzle of the week so far for me. Really too easy for Wednesday, but no discredit to Ms Margolin for that. NESTOR and AGAMEMNON tickled my fancy, and GILGAMESH was fun too. I would have liked to see all the GAMEs spilt across two-word phrases, but I'm hard pressed to come up with strong examples of 9-12 letters. Mega merger maybe, but that's not wonderful.

DOWNUNDER was Australia, of course - a good trick from the constructor. I really like DEAR SANTA, but it put up no resistance at all. SNEETCH must have been after my Seuss years... Nope. 1961. I just never read that one.

If you want one more go at a puzzle about the old BALL GAME before we (thankfully, IMO) head into winter sports' season, try http://tinyurl.com/mightypuz.

Medium and never saw the note.Eases and elks did me in. Changed lEAS to SEAS but never changed LIsLE to LILLE.Originally had Lyons for 3Down.Liked cluing for DEADER and DEAR SANTA.CrosswordEASE--OLIO.Thanks RBM.

I'm NUOVA to the Rexword blog, having only recently purchased an iPad. I used to ENDUPAT this site while cheating with Uncle Google at work as I attempted to solve the NYTXWord in the Seattle Times. Since I retired I'm having a BALL reading your advice, watching the VIDEOs, and laughing at all the comments on this BOARD. Thanks for the good times. It's almost like I'm a NEWME.

I also enjoy writing silly songs, so I'm MAKINGAMENDS in advance for the following:

Don't know much about history (Old Russian autocrat?)Don't know much biology (Young salamanders?)Don't know much about a science book (Sci-Fi play of 1921?)Don't know much about the French I took (When the French toast??)But I do know that I love (The "V" in R.S.V.P.)And I know that if you love "Don't cry for me" clues tooWhat a wonderful blog this could be.

The theme didn't help my solve, but my solve happened quite fine on its own. Answers I found fun or interesting included GILGAMESH, AGAMEMNON, THESHINING, NUBA, and SNEETCH. The puzzle has a double-L mini (4), a low BOARD, highBALL, and I must report that in this grid the BIBLE is off the RADAR. I learned ERMA and SNEETCH, and I'm quite likely not to know them next time as well, but we'll see. I would have liked some more clever clues, as Wednesdays often bring.

Even though my solve went smoothly and quickly, it wasn't boring. It was coffee to my brain. Thank you for that, Ruth!

I appreciate how moderation has made the comment section more civil, but yesterday illustrates a frustration. There were 20 comments or so after 1:30 p.m. that didn't get published until sometime after 10 p.m. That's just one day of course, but there is often a big lag between posting and the post being published, and that takes the motivation out of posting.

I solved this one without noticing the note attached. I noticed the asterisks on front of the four clues of course, but had no idea why they were there. After completing the grid, I looked at the long answers and saw the G's in all of them, followed by AME. Aha!! BALLGAME, VIDEO GAME, etc. What an entirely different experience! Great fun. We don't need no stinking notes.

I often feel a too-obvious reavealer or note is a wet blanket. Today it was.

AGAMEMNON was a king, but not much of a hero, as I recall. Other than that, the hardest part was finding those little tiny stars --even when I had three of them, I didn't notice that they were symmetrical in the grid.

Hey All !I think Will messed up on his Tuesday/Wednesday puzzles! Yesterday's should've been today's, today's should've been yesterday's. This puz was quite easy, (well, except for the middle, with having CANus instead of CANID, which screwed up 35A, 21,28,29D.)

Couldn't see GOLD MEDAL as clued, knew Nueva for Spanish "new", but not the Italian equivalent. Also, GRAVE was a WOE as clued, had GRAzE. So a mess in the center.

Did like it more than Rex, he seemed to TSK it. I would've liked to see the center answer, 38A, as part of the theme. But that's just me. Nice longer Downs. Overall, a good (Tuesday) puzzle, wrong day.

OOOOOh, I enjoyed this puzzle. So many great names. Just two mistakes: My control freak was A NAG ( I don't know what ONEG or ONEL is) but come to think of it, ANAL makes perfect sense - especially since it crosses DOWN UNDER.SNEETCHes !!! and the evil Mr. McBean. Our son loved that book and of course loved saying SNEETCH...:"...until neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knewwhether this one was that one...or that one was this oneor which one was what one...or what one was who"10 Stars for me.Oh, the other mistake was making Jackie O's designer as DIOR. (I know, nobody cares)..I had little asterisks for the corner answers so seeing GAME in each of the theme answers was a treat. I had a puppy I named AGAMEMNON..We found them abandoned but Aga and the rest were placed in super good homes.@jp Flanigan. I don't even know what EURO trash is...?Good job Ruth Bloomfield Margolin (love that name) Would not mind at all to see more of your puzzles.

The one l lama, he is a priest The two l llama, he is a beast But I will bet a silk pajama That there isn't any three l llama

However, in this case the ONE L means the first year law student. The first year in law school is when Torts and Contracts are usually taught. I think the expression finds its roots in The Paper Chase, a story about a first year law student at Harvard. This former law student never heard the expression when attending and totally rejects it as fill, a proper designation of a law student and everything else except what Ogden Nash said.

@Chefwen, I made a similar observation on WP, except I asked if DEADER was like being more pregnant.

@AliasZ, I was wondering how you liked the new moderation since the only reason you are here is because of moderation that took less time?

I'm with @Whirred and @Lewis. Both the motivation to post and the motivation to revisit this site to read new posts have been gravely, perhaps fatally, weakened. I suspect that that urge is on life support for many of us. Already, some of my favorite commenters are MIA. I continue to soldier on in order to keep myself in the BALL GAME, as it were, hoping that when the blog reverts to its former spontaneity and solver interaction, it will prove to have been worth it. We'll see.

The constructor at xwordinfo.com said, In my original puzzle, I had tried to use the clues to link each of the long theme answers to one of the corner words. So, for example, the clue for GILGAMESH was "Ancient epic of Mortal Kombat?" referencing the VIDEO game of the same name. (And the clue for VIDEO was "How the hidden feature of 16-Across might begin.") Similarly, the clue for MAKINGAMENDS was "Saying ‘Sorry!'?" referencing the BOARD game. The clue for TORNLIGAMENT was "It might hobble a Horse?" referencing the BALL game. And the clue for AGAMEMNON was "Greek king who returned from War?" referencing the CARD game. I was pleased with how my clues had a one-to-one correlation with the corner words. But I also knew that the connections were pretty subtle, so it didn't quite work. I suspected that many solvers might finish the puzzle without even noticing my carefully chosen details! Would you have noticed?

Too subtle? Maybe. So why do I feel the puzzle as published insults my intelligence now?

Three puzzles, four women constructors, two relatively new at constructing. Nice to see and I hope Shortz keeps recruiting more like this.

@Lewis - Great ANAL clue. I can imagine it being used by Buzzfeed or an indie or the fearless gruntzer. Maybe a little too 50 Shades for the Grey Lady.

@crabsofsteel - Law school first years are ONE L for some reason known only to crossword constructors.

"DEADER than a door nail" makes no sense, yet is a phrase I've heard and understood all my life.

Figured the theme out sans note...thought it was just fine, though the original idea does seem to have been a better idea, as per xwordinfo.

Loved ACORN, as we are nuts over them - we collect the millions that rain down in our yard, and paint them as befits the occasion. My mom has a production line going.Here's some of them ACORNs

(Fair warning - my mother will paint anything that stands still for long enough...)

The best dog ever, a mutt that looked like a cross btwn a Sheltie and a Cocker Spaniel, was named Aga - I was never sure if that was short for AGAMEMNON or AGApito.Whenever the whole family left the house, Aga would run to one of our rooms, take a piece of clothing (that of course we kids would have left on the floor or chair), and curl up on the couch with it for company. My mom hated that - she would close each of our bedroom doors before leaving. It was up to one of us to sneak behind her and open each door...

Also, knew the name Bill BAIRD because my orthodontist had a poster of him in his treatment room. I stared at that thing through several years of getting braces tightened - not the happiest associations...Thanks @Rex for some javascript:void(0)pretty interesting factoids about him - who knew?

@crabsofsteel, ONEL refers to first year law students, who are required to pass course work in tort law and contract law, among other subjects, before advancing to second year. Statistically, I have read that one out of three students either drops out or flunks out during first year. (I had a classmate who went to the bathroom in the middle of a civil procedure final exam and never came back!)

Interesting article in yesterday's NYT about unqualified students being admitted to law schools with the liklihood they will either not graduate, not pass a bar exam to practice, not find a suitable legal position in the public or private sector and/or ENDUPAT indebtedness with student loans up to their eyeballs. Not a pretty picture.

I found this puzzle to be an OLIO. Maybe because I detested "THE SHINING" and am befuddled by the perennial fascination with "Star Wars" characters like ARTOO, I did not have a BALL.

A little embarrassed at how long having AUSTRALIA in for DOWNUNDER threw me. Didn't see the note and, for me, seeing the note would undoubtedly have helped, at least with the feeling that there was no theme at all. Can't help on ONEL, no idea. Also never understood why it isnt ARTWO. Dont remember SNEETCH. Thought EUROtrash was pretty unnecessary. the Trojan related clues were interesting, but completely unrelated to the theme and could've gone into far more territory (USC, condoms etc) Also thought the TJS clueing for TORNLIGAMENT was kind of weak - TJS has a pretty specific focus - none of the NFL players tearing their MCL or ACL are getting TJS.

I agree with those who are complaining that moderation has severely hampered our ability to have any kind of back-and-forth among replies, and that this takes a lot of the fun out of replying at all. Is it worth this cost to keep certain undesirable posts from being published (until OFL has the opportunity to delete them)? If those undesirable posts are merely mean-spirited or snarky I would say no, but it seems to me that he is clearly letting plenty of that stuff come in -- which makes me suspect that the stuff he's screening out is way worse (for one reason or another). Rex, maybe you could chime in on this?

Easiest Wednesday in a while right after the toughest Tuesday I can remember, maybe Will Shortz flip-flopped his calendar.

ON EL is how students at the University of Chicago Law School get to class.

Can't believe @Rex didn't have some fun complaining about how dated this puzzled was with GILGAMESH, NESTOR, AGAMEMNON, and BIBLE. Heck, even the sauce was Old World Style.

See some complaints about DEADER. I'm old enough to have gotten my first Facebook "suggested post" from Pennsylvania Cremation Services just the other day. They recommended I call to discuss my options, maybe DEADER is one of them.

It is amusing to moi that so many of the contributors to the blog 'act' surprised that they agree with Messr. Sharp's evaluation of a puzzle. I am in complete agreement with him again today. There are some solid answers here and I particularly enjoyed making a visit to ancient Greek literature although I found it a bit curious that the professor of literature did not comment on that. But, the theme was just too thin and the puzzle lacked any snap.

Liked it. I thought it was a very nice combination of the hidden word + word-that-can-go-with themes. Getting BALL GAME (from GILGAMESH) early helped with the other theme answers, especially the TORN LIGAMENT, as I don't know who Tommy John is.

I liked seeing the early mythical NESTOR, AGAMEMNON, and GILGAMESH (and BIBLE?) keeping company with ARTOO and the nice cross of AMI and AMOUR (perhaps trysting in LILLE). Oh, and TUTU + SISI. And DEADER made me laugh. Overall, a lively puzzle with lots to like.

Pretty good puzzle, but nothing special. Saw the note pad, read it, and decided not to pay any attention to it. Having remained childless by choice, I let SNEETCH fill itself in from the downs. With the exception of Green Eggs And Ham, everything I know about Dr, Seuss has come via crosswords. There were one or two other slight snags, but my time was about average for a Wednesday.

@Da Bears: I knew the screen name had to be you. In regard to your post at 1:46 PM on yesterday's blog, I think its time to clear the air. I didn't come back to this blog to engage in a daily pissing contest with you. I suspect that type of behavior is exactly why Rex went to a moderated format, so lets nip this in the bud.

I don't know what your problem is JFC? You were my first crossword blog amigo. We both went to Wordplay at the same time, and had a great rapport on that blog. Somewhere along the line something changed? You fired the first shot at me on Wordplay, when you brought up the Jukebox brouhaha. You insinuated that I was afraid to criticize Rex and that you had to tell me to "Man Up." That may be partially true. I was new to this blog and blogging in general, so I hadn't any baseline for how critical I could be toward Rex without getting banned. Having said that, I think you might be suffering from selective memory or Old Timer's disease? Since we're both around the same age, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. As I recall it, you were the one who had ticked off Rex and were using "anonymous" to post. I was trying to avoid the same fate, but I didn't post anonymously. After you took that cheap shot at me, I retaliated by calling you out for going ballistic over the use of the term "hillbilly" when it was used as a puzzle entry. One of the things that I always admired about you was my belief that you would not bow to the PC crowd. Perhaps I was wrong?

One final thought. I will match my spine, testosterone level, and physical ability against yours any day of the week. Let's bury the hatchet, quit with any derogatory insinuations and just enjoy and Emuless blog. What say you?

Interesting to me you never heard the expression while attending. This former law student used 1L, 2L, and 3L all the way through, as did everyone else I knew. Never heard it any other way, actually. Must be a cultural difference between different law schools.

The repeated explanations about ONEL are a perfect example of why the blog should be de-moderated. No, I never heard of it until Turow wrote his book with that title, and I believe the term was unique to Harvard Law School -- when I was a student at a different law school, the collective term was "first years". But I knew I was in my element when our Torts teacher perched his butt on the blackboard chalk tray and started asking questions about the case of the day, and no matter what the response, our prof had a rejoinder.

I enjoyed the puzzle very much. Especially the Greekiness of it, with NESTOR and dear old AGAMEMNON. If you visit Mycenae, where his palace was, your mind is transported back 3000 years.

Didn't see the puzzle note until I was finished, so the puzzle played rather boring and easy. Definitely agree that this should have been switched with yesterday's puzzle based on difficulty (mostly because yesterday's had more obscure [and somewhat dreckier] fill)

Scott Turrow's first book is titled One L and is about his first year in law school. It was published in 1977. I don't want to sound like a blatherskite (a word used DOWN UNDER for a braggart) but I've known the term since then.

SNEETCH reminded me of a short, um, poem written by Shel Silverstein published in Playboy in the early sixties:

We've just been eaten by a quick-digesting Sneet,And now we are dodging his molars.Now we are roamin' his lower abdomen,And now we're back out on the street.

I enjoyed the cupuled ACORN. In college I wrote a paper that discussed why the indigenous Californians would never have developed agriculture beyond growing their own tobacco. The acorn was their staple crop. As part of that project, I harvested, hulled, ground, leached, and made and ate ACORN porridge and bread. All in all, a fascinating experience.

I didn't read the note flashing i told me about until I got to GILGAMESH. Even then I didn't pay it much mind until I hit the last across. "Okay," I thought to myself, I thought. "So what?" I have to agree that today's effort was more Tuesday than Wednesday and yesterday's was more Wednesday than Tuesday. I agree with @Rex, it was easy.

I miss the community we had going on here. I miss the discussion and the banter. Other blogs never did live up to the Rex Parker Experience. I also hope Annabelle feels better soon too.

This was fun and even a glut of writeovers didn't slow me down too much. Do they make LIsLE in LILLE? I was ANAL about being oN it at 22A. My Italian wanted a NUEVA way to spell NUOVA. NESTOR, hEcTOR, who can keep these Trojans straight? I was in AMore with my AMOUR. And the black ops sector, ink-wise, was the far SW. The A of ARTOO gave me opAL at 51D. Then 51A became lEAS (hey, there are some pretty expansive meadows here I the Midwest). Okay, okay I SAABed, I'll change it.

But otherwise I was pretty much in the GAME throughout the whole puzzle.

@ old timer: Excellent observation about the perils of asking for an explanation in this format. I knew crabsofsteel was going to be inundated with replies regarding his query, but there was no way I could expeditiously warn him. Unless the format changes here, I'd advise him to simply Google any future questions about clues or answers.

1. In the days of immoderation a question like the ONEL question would often have multiple answers (go back two years, it won't take more than a week to find examples). The only difference is that we couldn't blame the moderator then.2. The commentariat sometimes sounds like the blog is our exclusive playground. According to URLMetrics Rex gets ~190,000 readers a month. So, no.3. Lots of commenters have left since I started reading this. Some I miss (even some who didn't like each other), but somehow there are still 60-160 comments everyday. The only irreplaceable person here is Rex.4. I like @Lewis' suggestion, but I have no idea how practical that is for OFL. He does this for donations, so it has to work for Rex, not the commentariat.

On a more interesting note, The Franklin clue reminded me of this book. A good read, and history that resonates today. Music. Cars. Politics. Mobs. Sports. It has something for everyone.

I agree with everyone above on the moderation being more of a negative than what it corrects.

Rex can always stop by a few times a day to expunge objectionable material, meaning that the rare objectionable piece won't even be seen by a majority of readers. Likewise, he could "deputize" a few of the well-known posters here to show up daily at an agreed time to do it for him.

C'mon, Rex, the sentiment on this point so far -- agreed, just a handful, but unanimous so far -- is clear on this point. True, it's your blog, but I'm sure you're open-minded enough to be willing to rethink the issue. Or, if not, I'd be interested in hearing your reasoning. Thanks!

since last Saturdays puzzle included "THUGS" with the resulting rant... "In the context of a white-produced puzzle for mostly white people, please, dear god, clue THUGS in some way where Race Is Not A Factor. It is, sincerely, the very least you could do."

@jberg - re: AGAMEMNON - I'm not sure whether he is rightly considered a 'hero' of the war, but not only was he a king, he was the brother of the cuckolded Menelaus, and 'the most powerful ruler in Hellas'; he marshaled the forces of the other Greek states and was commander-in-chief through the entire war. Apparently he had called upon the 'Oath of Tyndareus' (though I was taught it was due to Paris' transgression of the 'law' of hospitality) - in any case, there is an interesting article here -- http://www.maicar.com/GML/Agamemnon.html

On a sweeter note - last night I came across a review of a concert led by the inimitable Paul VAN Nevel, featuring the music of one Firminus Caron (fl.1460-1475) - of whom I'd never heard, but who apparently wrote one of the great hits of the 15th century - 'Helas que pourra devenir' - and was considered a great innovator. Firminus seems to be in the process of being rediscovered, with a 3-disc set recently released. Here (I hope) is the same 'Helas' - it comes from the aforementioned CD set, and is quite something. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp96fG33M_o

YouTube has another concert led by Mr. Van Nevel, which includes a few pieces by Firminus (program provided under video).

Mac -if you read this - there is a brief intro in, I presume, Dutch. (I think you might like the music, too!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac8Ejuh74gA

@Tita, awesome acorns (and nice avatar for today.) Your oaks must be a different varietal than the ones in my yard - I don't think one could paint on the rather small ones we have - or your mom has amazingly steady hands and eyesight. The Xmas ornaments are so cute.

A nice puzzle for a playful Wednesday solve; it's quite a winning GAMEplan to run the gamut from GILGAMESH and AGAMEMNON to the SILLy star-bellied SNEETCHES and Sabrina, the Teen-aged Witch. As usual, I missed the Notepad, and am glad of it. It's much more satisfying to discover something yourself than to be led to it. Where's the fun in that?

Considering the fill, the clues might have been ramped up a little: my only writeover was from NUeVA to NUOVA, on account of the GeLD MEDALS double-take. GELD MEDALS? That would be the making of a whole NEW ME. Think I'd rather go with the TORN LIGAMENT.

So Sorry to say, but I think the puzzle misleads in a very GRAVE way. Life is not a GAME. The Big Boss has a Monopoly on your time, and co-workers who have nary a Clue and not much in the way of Scruples play Whack-a-Mole with your tender aspirations. Something always happens that Chutes you down off the Ladder to the top. This Trivial Pursuit of Success nets you only a Checkered career, and maybe a Checker cab. It Chess isn't worth it, you know? Your girlfriend's built like a Battleship and you've nowhere to Hang, Man. Plus you run the outside Risk that someday a Hungry, Hungry Hippo will Scatter Gory bits of you around the landscape when all you hoped for was a stroll in the zoo.

I may have Mad-Libbed too long, but want to add I hope we won't stay Ruth-less for long, and that the Belle of Wellesley stay well again.

ps: A thoughtful touch to include "Here's Johnny!' for those who found Paar cheesy.

Because the NYTimes doesn't have a history of being tone-deaf with the European community, would be my reasoning. Also, it isn't, like, the third time in a month we've had an iffy European-culture based clue.

Honestly curious, though, do you think "thugs" and "Eurotrash" are equivalent? Eurotrash always seemed to be more of a fashion thing, to me, like the same level of insult as "bridge-and-tunneler", as opposed to implying criminality and violence. Just my opinion.

@Paul Courtney It has to do with that context thing that was in your quotation.

@others The key to understanding the VIDEO clue is the lack of quotation marks that would indicate the need to seek out a parallel phrase. It's misleading on purpose, like jokes are, and relies on the fact that the most common way of ingesting a video is to watch it.

The spoutings of Donald Trump over the last couple of days, and the positive response he is getting from (I've heard) 30% of Americans has me in a funk. Apparently today he was on two morning shows where even more people get to abe subjected to his racist crap. What is going on there, folks?

So, the puzzle was a nice break from all that and I was GAME to finish, which I did. I agree the puzzle would have been more of a puzzle without the note, but I liked it nonetheless. My kids loved all things Seuss, especially SNEETCHes, and the lesson in that story has been lost on too many people.